KARACHI: Opened with positive note, the Pakistan Stock Exchange dropped all the early gains and closed almost flat. The benchmark 100-index shed 33.44 points to reach 48981.65 points level at closing on Wednesday.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 49331.54 points and lowest level of 48710.29 points, with the volume of over 379 million shares and value of Rs 16.52 billion. As many as 409 companies were active; of which 90 advanced, 304 declined and 15 remained unchanged.
K-Electric L was the volume leader with 56.82 million shares, shedding Rs 0.16 to finish at Rs 9.65. It was followed by Aisha Steel Mill with 34.22 million shares, losing Rs 1.27 to end at Rs 25.79 and Power Cement Ltd with 24.56 million shares, dropping Rs 0.99 to close at Rs 19.66.
The top three gainers were Colgate Palmolive with price per share of 1938.60 (38.60), Atlas Battery with price per share of 975.67 (33.67) and Indus Dyeing share of 612.50 (29).
The top three losers were Rafhan Maize with price per share of 7550 (-300), Sanofi-Aventis with price per share of 2470.25 (-79.75) and Millat Tractors per share of 1107.38 (-57.65).
Earlier, the stocks started day on positive note and added 182.38 points to reach 49197.47 points in early trading. The bullish note persisted till midday as the Pakistan Stock Exchange benchmark 100-index added 128.71 points to reach 49143.80 points level.
On Tuesday, the stocks showed recovery amid late session support in oil, cement and banking scrips on strong valuations, resultantly the benchmark shares index rallied around 86 points.
Volatility prevailed in the market as the index traded between an intraday high of 174 points and an intraday low of 273 points to finally close at 49,015 level, brokers said. Banking sector extended its previous day gains as it gained to close (0.4%) higher. HBL (up 0.35%), MCB (0.52%) and UBL (0.73%) were among the major index movers from the aforementioned sector. Overall, volumes remained flat at 343 million shares, while value declined by 5 percent to Rs13.9 billion.